MarketWatch is shifting its online message from “The Story Behind The Numbers” to the more consumer-oriented idea that investing can be easier. The online campaign by Trahan, Burden & Charles using familiar, if not a tad trite, images like a goose laying a golden egg and money being plucked from a tree to illustrate the message: “Not This Easy, But Pretty Darn Easy.”
The ads will run on top search engines and financial sites and will be backed up by print ads in parent Dow Jones’ flaghip WSJ as well as the New York Daily News and USA Today. (I understand USA Today as a national paper aimed at consumers but the Daily News?)
This could be the most externally visible move by Nathan Richardson, SVP/GM-Dow Jones Online, since he moved over from Yahoo Finance last summer. Via the press release, he says the ads “play up the site’s brand character, which is ‘young, enjoyable, trusted, smart and casual.’” That same research also suggests people visit the site for 24/7 news and information to make investing easier. Trying to figure out how this jives with the description of MarketWatch users as “nearly 70 percent male, with an average household income of nearly $90,000. More than 40% percent are business decision makers or influencers and more than 11% are C-level executives.”